In lower than 96 hours after they beat reigning World Champions England, Afghanistan received a stable actuality examine from a ruthless New Zealand, which recorded a thumping 149-run victory in a totally one-sided World Cup match in Chennai on Wednesday. On account of this conquest, the Black Caps stay unbeaten within the occasion thus far, taking the highest spot once more with its fourth straight victory. Chasing a troublesome goal of 289 on a spinner-friendly wicket at Chepauk, Afghanistan might handle solely 139 in 34.four overs. The Afghans discovered Lockie Ferguson’s (3/19 in 7 overs) tempo too scorching to deal with and had no solutions for Mitchell Santner’s (3/39 in 7.four overs) deliveries, which at occasions, turned a mile.
This was after triple half-centuries from Will Younger (54), Tom Latham (68) and Glenn Phillips (71) ensured that New Zealand put up a profitable whole of 288/6 in 50 overs.
Whereas chasing, Afghanistan had been all the way down to 43 for Three by the 14th over, with skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (8) being the third man to be dismissed, with Ferguson having his quantity.
Then, the pair of Rahmat Shah (36) and Azmatullah Omarzai (27) took transient management of the chase, placing on a 54-run stand for the fourth wicket.
Nonetheless, the New Zealanders already had the higher hand, and with the ball turning, they hardly allowed them to attain freely.
Within the 26th over, pacer Trent Boult received the partnership damaged, eliminating Omarzai.
Thereon, the Afghans barely had any solutions as they misplaced wickets at common intervals.
Earlier, New Zealand recovered nicely from a mini mid-innings hunch to put up a commendable whole. Nonetheless, a complete of 5 dropped catches did make issues a bit onerous for the Afghans, particularly Rashid, who noticed a few his probabilities go abegging.
Younger , Latham and Phillips’ half-centuries ensures that the Black Caps posted an above-par whole on a monitor the place stroke-making wasn’t a straightforward proposition.
Phillips and Latham placed on 144 invaluable runs for the fifth wicket and it might nicely show to be a game-changer.
Put into bat first, the Kiwis misplaced opener Devon Conway (20) within the seventh over, with spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman trapping him leg-before.
Nonetheless, the pair of opener Younger and in-form batter Rachin Ravindra (32) took cost and placed on a convincing 79-run stand for the second wicket.
An opportunity to stump Ravindra was missed, whereas spinner Mohammad Nabi was put underneath stress by the Black Caps batters, as he was attacked fairly commonly.
Ultimately, it was pacer Azmatullah Omarzai who received the partnership damaged within the 21st over, cleansing up Ravindra off a straight supply, because the batter tried to swing it in the direction of mid-wicket, however missed it fully within the course of.
It was at this second the New Zealanders had a short collapse, dropping Younger and Daryl Mitchell (1) by the 22nd over to Omarzai and spinner Rashid Khan, respectively, because the rating learn 110 for 4.
Whereas Younger had already scored his seventh ODI half-century, he was notably dropped within the second over by Rahmat Shah off Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Nonetheless, New Zealand managed to get better quickly as skipper Latham and Phillips put up one other positive stand that outlined the tone for the remainder of their innings.
The duo additionally introduced up their respective 23rd and third ODI half-centuries every, regardless of the Afghani bowlers conserving the Kiwi scoring price in examine.
Because the pair started upping the ante and the scoring price put up the 45th over, the partnership was damaged by pacer Naveen-ul-Haq within the 48th, with each the set batters departing in the identical over.
However, there was nonetheless some work to be completed, and it was Mark Chapman (25 not out) who got here up with some late blitz, together with two fours and a six, to make sure that the Black Caps went previous the 275-run mark on this monitor.
For Afghanistan, Omarzai and Naveen had been the celebs with the ball, seizing a few wickets every, whereas Rashid was a no brainer along with his economical spell.
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